The State of New York might launch a huge offensive against a nasty invasive species that tears up underwater vegetation, threatens passenger jets, and (occasionally) attacks people with the raw, avian vindictiveness of an avenging archangel. Unfortunately for the State of New York and its beleaguered PR interns, that… »2/02/14 12:30pm 2/02/14 12:30pm

It’s spring! No, even better — it’s summer! It’s summer and it’s hot as a fevered uvula outside, which means that your seasonal amnesia is already urging you to take all your useless winter clothes, pile them up on the street, pour gasoline all over them, and light them on fire, sending thick, ozone-puncturing… »6/07/13 12:35pm 6/07/13 12:35pm

Are you happy now, humans? Are you happy? It's 2012 and the prognosis is not good. The glaciers are melting, the polar bears are drowning, the people of Vanuatu are floating around their living rooms in washtubs like Pippi Longstocking or some shit, and I never even got to look at a glacier or pet a polar bear OR hang… »10/04/12 5:00pm 10/04/12 5:00pm

Here we were worrying that our dependence on oil and the spewing of industrial waste and the unending overpopulation of our land were the things that were going to ruin our planet. But it turns out what we really should be worried about, according to some new research, is fat people. Wait, huh? Yes, that's right,… »6/18/12 11:30am 6/18/12 11:30am

Today the National Geographic Society announced the recipient of the 10,000th grant it's given in its 123-year history: 32-year-old conservation biologist Krithi Karanth. We spoke with Dr. Karanth about her work, and about what it's like to be a female scientist both in the US and her native India. »12/08/11 5:10pm 12/08/11 5:10pm

Farmers' new, extremely effective methods of killing milkweed are having an unintended effect — a decline in the population of monarch butterflies, which lay their eggs on the weed. Also at risk are rainbows, ponies, shooting stars, and the entire oeuvre of Lisa Frank. »7/11/11 5:07pm 7/11/11 5:07pm